How to look productive

Step 1: Gather up all the unfinished projects you haven't worked on in days/weeks.

Step 2: Take pictures of them.

Step 3: Post pictures on blog.

Step 4 (optional): Read Supernatural fanfiction instead of doing anything productive.

First up, spinning. Work-friend Kate gave me a bag of her leftover spinning goodies to help get me started, which included a couple ounces of this gorgeous silky pink stuff (soy silk? Ingeo?). The stuff is a more difficult material to spin because of the shiny, slick fibers, so the plan was to set it aside as inspiration for later.

Um, yeah, that didn't work out.
I only used a little bit of it, though - saving the rest for when I'm actually good enough to make something awesome with it.

A few days before my hard drive went kablooie, lots of neat things came in the mail. Corriedale roving from Knitty and Color:
4-something ounces each in "Kermie" and "Mariner's Revenge." My camera can't capture how gorgeous the second one is. I drooled a little when I opened up the bag. Also, since this Etsy shop is new, they sent along another 1oz roving sample as a "Welcome to our shop!" freebie, which was too perfect. The green in it is Kiah's favorite color! She claimed it immediately, as you can see.

I also got a spindle set with a cute bag, from GreenBeeGoods:
And new spindle plus easy to spin roving means...
This is probably the best spinning I've done so far - the yarn only ranges from about lace to sport weight and doesn't have any slubs.

In knitting, I've made a little headway on my Two for his Heels knee-highs.

And also my Monkey knee-highs. For someone who takes forever to complete a pair of socks, I've gotten myself entrenched in a lot of knee-high socks commitments.
The Swallowtail Shawl is still sitting around 3/4 done. And I'm still staring at it going, "How am I making lace?" because this seems like an alien concept. But look - lace!
Lace that I made! What the crap. It must be magic.

The other crafty thing I've been working on lately is woodburning. Michael's sells a variety of unfinished wood plaques for cheap, so I picked up a bunch a few weeks back and started doodling on them.
Woodburning is weirdly relaxing for a craft involving red-hot metal and marks you can't erase. I should do more of it. If I manage to fit it into my regularly scheduled programing, I could see myself making a small Etsy business out of it.

See, doesn't this make me look productive? Truth is, I haven't picked up any of these projects in the last week or so, and I spent all weekend avoiding creative work, my right wrist in a brace. But right now, the house is quiet and my wrist is feeling less on fire. I'm going to go write.